Manipur reports its first case of Omicron variant in man who returned from Tanzania

Dr. K Rajo said the person came from Tanzania on December 11 after testing negative and reached Kolkata Airport on December 12. He arrived at Imphal Airport on December 13 via Indigo flight no. 6E-6014.

While the person was undergoing strict home quarantine, he tested positive for Covid-19 on December 12 after conducting RT-PCR test and subsequently his sample was sent for genome sequencing, said Rajo.

A containment zone has been declared in the surrounding areas of his residence and strict contact tracing was conducted as preventive measures, he added.

The Health director further informed that during the contact tracing exercise, three of his close associates were found to be positive for Covid-19 on December 22.

Sample of the three individuals, kept in special isolation, have been sent for genome sequencing at IBSD, Imphal, the director added.

“All the four individuals including the one who tested positive for Omicron are all asymptomatic and are in good health condition”, said Dr K. Rajo.

He appealed to the public not to panic as preventive measures are in place.

Dr K Rajo said all the CMOs, District Rapid Response Teams, and testing teams have been alerted.

“The government will increase the testing rate and is also all set to give boosters to fully vaccinated persons and normal vaccine to children as announced by the Ministry”, he said.

Rajo said the state government has reserved adequate beds, oxygen, ventilators among others to meet any consequences.

As per data provided by the state health department, there was zero COVID fatality for 10 days, the recovery rate is 98.26 and the active cases is only 182 in the month of December.